Monday, December 12, 2011

COGWA: What's Wrong With the Picture?



Take a look at the following leadership of the Church of God a Worldwide Association.  What's wrong with the picture?

Board of Directors is:   David Baker, Arnold Hampton, Joel Meeker Chairman, Richard Pinelli, Larry Salyer, Richard Thompson and Leon Walker.
A random drawing was held to determine BMOD member lengths of service, the results:  
David Baker – four years.
Arnold Hampton – eight years.
Joel Meeker – four years.
Richard Pinelli – eight years.
Larry Salyer – eight years.
Richard Thompson – eight years.
Leon Walker – four years  


PRESIDENT:  Jim Franks 
Media – Clyde Kilough
One Accord online paper:  Larry Salyer
Ministerial Services – Doug Horchak

Doctrine Committee:   John Foster, Bruce Gore, Don Henson, David Johnson, Ralph Levy
Morals and Ethics Assessment Committee:   Mike Blackwell, Larry Neff, Mike Hanisko
Les McCullough and Paul Suckling.

It's the same old tired men who manipulated, connived and stabbed backs along the way to get where they are today.  No new leadership blood is present.  It is all men who trained under HWA and who plan on following HWA's misguided path.  They are stuck in pre-1986 mode and have no intention of ever moving into the 21st century. 


COGWA also announced that they are moving their corporate HQ to Dallas Texas.  They are going to have to find their own property because UCG has refused to sell the vacant Denton property to any church that splits off from them. COGWA was very interested in the Denton property and out of spite UCG is refusing got sell to them.

Samuel Martin On Paying To Support Church Leaders Preaching and Publishing



Samuel Martin posted a comment on an entry further down in Spare Not The Rod: Beat Them Into Submission?

His blog entry is Should we preach? publish?, or proclaim the Gospel - Yes? No? Maybe?

I like the following quotes from him:


Here is a well intentioned Christian brother living thousands of miles away from the region where the Bible was written, using a 400 year old Bible version attempting to bring information which in some cases is over 3,000 years old into our modern day.

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There is of course nothing wrong with preaching, publishing or proclaiming the Gospel. On the contrary. What is wrong, however, is misusing the Holy Scriptures to attempt to prove that a particular Church or religious leader must engage in preaching and publishing and that Church members should pay to see that these things take place. Preaching and publishing ministries are fine and excellent things in and of themselves, but one should not use these passages as justification for demanding that Church members pay the bills for these ministerial elements based upon a wrong understanding of Scripture.

Can you imagine Flurry, Pack, or Meredith all the sudden stop requiring church members to send in money to support their "ministries?"  

Sunday, December 11, 2011

Being A UCG Minister Is Exhausting Work!!!!!!



I had to laugh at the comment in Melvin Rhodes letter to UCG minsters discussing the ministerial conference.

It is such a life draining experience and such hard work that UCG ministers will be exhausted from all that burdensome work.

My question is when have ANY of these men ever actually done a full day of hard labor?  How many have actually worked a full day in their lives?  They usually have everyone around them doing their dirty work, moving them, mowing their lawns, taking care of their houses, etc.

If you have pictures of any of them actually performing real work I would love to post them.

Thursday we met mostly in executive session to approve ordinations and to   approve a new hire for Media and Communications Services.

By Thursday at 3 p.m. we were all exhausted and ready to return home. We   are already looking forward to our next meetings at the end of February, 2012.

UCG To Start Begging Members To Fund New Buildings



After losing close to 50% of their ministry and well over a third of their members, UCG thinks it needs to build more buildings in Cincinnati.  Pretty soon the UCG will start a new building campaign for funding and chruch members will start lining up to donate.  Well, at least some of them blindly will.  Others are disgusted by the proposition of more HQ space being built.

As we strive toward our goals, the administration requested the Council consider   plans to expand the home office. This is primarily being driven by our need   to have expanded areas for our Media and Communications Services department   to more effectively and powerfully preach the gospel of God’s Kingdom. The  department is currently over capacity.

There are many needs, including a larger and more effective television studio   and a bigger meeting hall (which could double up as a permanent Feast site,   allowing 500 people to meet). There is also a need to provide additional space   for our young adults and ministerial education programs. Initial plans would   enhance this area, as well as our media department.

Some Council members expressed caution on taking on a loan at a time of economic   uncertainty. So after a great deal of discussion, a decision was made to go   ahead and hire an architect to draw up plans to give us a more accurate estimate   of costs. After seeing more concrete costs, and if the project is approved   by the Council in February, the money for it will be included in the 2012-2013   budget for approval by the General Conference of Elders in May. This will   also give us time to raise the funds in order to move forward in a measured   way. We would appreciate input from you and from our members, and are open   to a collaborative approach as we move forward. More information will be forthcoming.   We estimate that the final cost will be about two million dollars.

Maybe it is time for the members to give UCG brass a wake up call and call  halt to this program.  Why dump all of this money for new facilities when there is no need other than to pump up the egos of HQ brass so they can look more important!.

Is It Right To Give Estates To the COG?



I have always thought it rather disgusting that the COG has always begged for estate donations.  The COG is already taking over 40% of your income and they want more and more.  The sad part is that many families have been written out of wills in order to give everything to the chruch.

This happened in WCG numerous times and multiple lawsuits were waged by family members who had been left out.  WCG always fought those lawsuits vigorously doing everything in their power to discredit the people filling suit against them.  Multiple families have been left destitute while WCG got all the money.  Millions of wasted dollars went to pay the attorney's fighting these suits leaving the church with little from the original amount, yet the attorneys lived high on the hog all the time.

I was surprised to read on Apostle Malm's blog to day about people donating estates to COG's.  I was impressed that he said DON'T DO IT!  Malm says it is a sin to leave everything to the church while leaving nothing to your heirs.

Aaron Dean, operation manager for Financial Services, reported that our finances   are better than expected. In trying to take care of all the needs of the church,   including ensuring that all our congregations around the world are taken care   of with a resident or visiting minister and with people cared for, we have   often had to step out in faith. Our “faith line” was bolstered in the first   six months of the current fiscal year by two estate donations. God is looking   after us and taking care of our needs—congregations, ministry, people cared   for—the mission of the church is being funded. The Council deeply appreciates   the prayers and continued financial support of the brethren.
  Malm says:
I would warn the brethren that willing our estates to any church without leaving anything for our heirs is a terrible SIN in God’s eyes .1 Ti 5:8   But if any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel. Even if our heirs are not converted, we are to provide for them to the best of our ability, thus setting a Godly example that will remain with them for all eternity.  Even if they dispise us, WE have a command from Christ to return good for evil at all times.

We are to NEVER leave our estate to anyone but our natural heirs unless we have no natural heirs.  If we are very wealthy we can of course leave a small amount to the church.  The defrauding of natural heirs amounts to the ROBBING of widows and orhans and is one of the terrible sins of these COG Groups.  I know that this is done out of a misguided love for the corporate church organization, which makes this fall into the condemnation of Christ as per Mat 15:3  But he answered and said unto them, Why do ye also transgress the commandment of God by your tradition?